Local Hero ..

[weedie]

Hey there folks,
A couple of questions about the film Local Hero if you please..
Is that a young Martin Hayes on the Fiddle in the Ceili Band ?
And..
At the same party,the Russian bloke,Victor,I think,sings a stirring song and does a mighty fine job of it too...does anyone know the name of this song ??
Cheers form Oz......weedie...

[kkrell]

All that I can find credited on the soundtrack is Mark Winchester on violin.

[jsluder]

A quick Google search indicates that the ceilidh band was a local group called the Acetones. I'm not sure who the members are/were.

I've seen Victor's song referred to as "Lone Star Man", but I have no idea whether it's traditional or was written specifically for the movie.

[chrisoff]

According to this page (http://www.doog.net/music/details/21414.html) The Acetones were Alan Clark (piano) Alan Darby, Roddy Murray (guitars) Jimmy Yuill (whistle) Mark Winchester (accordion) Brian Rowan (bass) Ed Bicknell (drums)


Wikipedia says Ed Bicknell used to manage Dire Straits so I don't think they were a ceilidh band from up here. Wiki also says Alan Clarke played piano for Dire Straits, Alan Darby is a session guitarist, Roddy Murray used to be in a band with Craig Ferguson and Peter Capaldi (who was in Local Hero), Jimmy Yuill is an actor and I can't find much about the other two.

[weedie]

Thanks amigos ..
I've done a bit of googling on Local Hero ..
...and came up with...
Victors' song apears to be not a Traditional song at all ! Seems as though some one,somewhere along the line,put these great lyrics to the melody of "Send me the Pillow That you Dream On" ...What a great title for a song ! ..Its not quite Victors Song, but very close..
As for a young Martin,he would have been about 20 years of age at the time the film was made....and the boy Fiddler in the band looks to be a bit younger than that....
So what I did was to go to the Martin Hayes web site and ask them this trivial question.....either they'll reply, or be thinking that 'this bloke needs to get a life' and should be home practicing his Flute instead..

[hans]

Victor's song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkj9KViN_cA


Great film!

[HDSarah]

I remember seeing Local Hero many years ago. I liked the movie, but I remember being upset and disappointed by the depiction of the northern lights in the film. I was away from Alaska and homesick at the time, and the wash of colors I remember in the film didn't look anything like what I'd experienced as "real" northern lights. (It was like the John Wayne movie "North to Alaska," clearly filmed in southern California!) Later I wondered whether, when the aurora is seen over Scotland, it looks significantly different than it does here, and maybe I was wrong.

So, my question to the Scots here who've seen the movie: what did you think of the "northern lights" in the film?

[Denny]

oh dear.... like this?

[hans]

yes, it is disappointing in the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiNSCKtfVos
Looks like they did it artificially with some light beams?

I assure you the Northern Lights here can be very beautiful.
And it is wild how they move!
Sarah, you are little further North, so you may have them more intense at times. But I did see lights streaming right overhead in many colours many years ago. Has been quiet for some time, the sun is having a break.

[s1m0n]

Victors' song apears to be not a Traditional song at all !

Traditional music makes holywood copyright lawyers very nervous, because it's difficult to *prove* that a melody is trad, and therefore public domain. If they use a melody with an easily documented history and a music publishing deal, they pay the standard royalty and can forget about it. Once they've paid the composer's rights admin agency, the studio is clear. Anyone who thinks they're the real composer and wants to take it to court has to sue the guy the studio already paid. The studio can say "it's not our problem. We paid to the standard rate to the registered agency. Go talk to them about it.."

If the movie contains public domain material that someone thinks isn't PD, on the other hand, that person gets to sue the producer or the studio, and more importantly, the P or S has to pay lawyers argue about it.

[weedie]

Thanks Simon for your input....pretty timely in the wake of a 'copyright infringement' the happened here in OZ yesterday.
The band 'Men at Work' and their record company are in trouble over their hit song 'We Come from the Land Down Under' ..The offending bit is about 10 seconds in duration and is part of the Flute riff in the song..The courts judged that it was ripped off from the old song 'Kookaburra Song' written in 1932 .....
Men at work and their record company have to now give back 60% of all royalties for the past 6 years ..ouch ! Gotta be careful these days..
Wow those Northern Lights must be something special to see 'in the flesh' ...I thought they looked pretty cool in the film and did'nt know until now that they were 'special effects'.....next viewing of the film,I'll just have to pretend that they're the real deal.......

[hans]

well there are also the Southern Lights...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icugqEEOgkg

[chrisoff]

You know I've lived here my whole life and never properly seen the northern lights

I did once see them on a clear evening as I got off the train, but it was daylight so the effect was minimal.

I've never seen Local Hero either to be honest.

[s1m0n]

Thanks Simon for your input....pretty timely in the wake of a 'copyright infringement' the happened here in OZ yesterday.
The band 'Men at Work' and their record company are in trouble over their hit song 'We Come from the Land Down Under' ..The offending bit is about 10 seconds in duration and is part of the Flute riff in the song..The courts judged that it was ripped off from the old song 'Kookaburra Song' written in 1932 .....
Men at work and their record company have to now give back 60% of all royalties for the past 6 years ..ouch ! Gotta be careful these days..
Wow those Northern Lights must be something special to see 'in the flesh' ...I thought they looked pretty cool in the film and did'nt know until now that they were 'special effects'.....next viewing of the film,I'll just have to pretend that they're the real deal.......

Ironically, Kookaburra is based on an english folk melody.

[s1m0n]

You know I've lived here my whole life and never properly seen the northern lights

I did once see them on a clear evening as I got off the train, but it was daylight so the effect was minimal.

The aurora is a lot more impressive in sunspot years, which come round once a decade. I'd seen boring auroras before, but on the last or second last peak, I was living way out in the country, where there was a whole lot of dark sky. I was coming home in the small hours one night, and a display so spectacular that I pulled the car over at the top of a hill and sat there watching it for 40 minutes or so.